PLAY GUIDE

actors theatre of louisville

EDUCATION SPONSOR: GE APPLIANCES AND LIGHTING

ABOUT THE ADVETURES OF TOM SAWYERPLAY GUIDE

This play guide is a standards-based resource designed to enhance your theatre experience. Its goal is twofold: to nurture the teaching and learning of theatre arts and to encourage essential questions that lead to enduring understandings of the play’s meaning and relevance. Inside you will find history/contextual information and vocabulary that lay the groundwork of the story and build anticipation for the performance. Oral discussion and writing prompts encourage your students to reflect upon their impressions and to analyze and relate key ideas to their personal experiences and the world around them. These can easily be adapted to fit most writing objectives. The Bridgework connects theatre elements with ideas for drama activities in the classroom. We encourage you to adapt and extend the material in any way to best fit the needs of your community of learners. Please feel free to make copies of this guide, or you may download it from our website: ActorsTheatre.org. We hope this material, combined with our pre-show workshops, will give you the tools to make your time at Actors Theatre a valuable learning experience.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer student matinees and play guides address specific EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:

• Students will identify or describe the use of elements of drama in dramatic works.

• Students will analyze how time, place and ideas are reflected in drama/theatre

• Students will explain how drama/theatre fufills a variety of purposes

If you have any questions or suggestionsregarding our play guides, please contactSteven Rahe, Director of Education, at502-584-1265 ext. 3045.

TABLE OF CONTENTS3 Tom Sawyer Synopsis, Characters and Setting

4 About the Author; About the Adaptor

5 Bringing Life To A Classic: Adapting Tom Sawyer

for the Stage

6 An Interview with Movement Director, Tommy

Rapley

7 River Town Culture/Louisville’s River Town

History 8 Tom Sawyer: Just For Adults?

9 Mark Twain: Literary Outlaw? 10-11 Notions of Childhood: Then And Now/Twain’s

Childhood

12 Writing Portfolio, Discussion Questions

13 Bridgework

14 Other Reading and Works Cited

15 Glossary of Terms

Actors Theatre EducationSteven Rahe, Director of EducationJacob Stoebel, Associate Director of EducationJane B. Jones, Education FellowBetsy Anne Huggins, Education Intern/Teaching ArtistDustin Morris, Education Intern/Teaching ArtistLiz Fentress, Resident Teaching ArtistKeith McGill, Resident Teaching Artist

Play Guide by Betsy Anne Huggins, Sarah Johnsrude, Steven Rahe and Jacob Stoebel

Graphic Design by Mary Kate Zihar

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The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports

Actors Theatre of Louisville with state tax dolars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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SYNOPSISTom Sawyer, a boy of about 11, is known around his small town of St. Petersburg, Missouri as a playful troublemaker. Tom and his friend, Huck Finn, enjoy plotting adventures that often leave them in danger.

One night, when Tom and Huck journey to the town graveyard in the hopes of cursing off some unwanted warts, the two

boys witness a murder. The boys agree to keep quiet out of terror, but grow uncomfortable when a suspect is wrongly accused and the real murderer walks free. Meanwhile, Tom falls out of favor with his sweetheart, Becky, when she learns he was “engaged” to someone else before her. Can Tom win her over? Will he and Huck come forward about the graveyard happenings or let the murderer walk free?

CAST OF CHARACTERS

SETTINGVarious locations in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Tom Sawyer An eleven or twelve year old boy, Tom is mischievous but has a good heart. He is always up for an adventure.

Becky Thatcher A new young girl in town who becomes the object of Tom’s affection.

Huckleberry Finn Huck is a free-spirited twelve year old vagrant and Tom’s best friend. The son of the town drunk, Huck is the envy of all the boys because he doesn’t have to attend school or church, or even bathe!

Joe Harper Tom’s school friend.

Sid Sawyer Tom’s older brother, a mean-spirited goody two-shoes who loves to get Tom in trouble. Aunt Polly As the guardian of Tom and Sid, she has the arduous task of keeping Tom in line.

Injun Joe Motivated by anger and revenge, Joe acts out through thievery and murder, punishing those who have helped make him a social outcast.

Muff Potter An unlucky drunk who becomes the main suspect in the murder of Doc Robinson.

Doc Robinson A respected doctor, Robinson meets an unfortunate end in the graveyard.

School Master Tom and Joe’s teacher and a strict disciplinarian.

Widow Douglas A kind, elderly woman.

Minister Douglas The longwinded preacher.

Widow’s Brother Accomplice

Lawyers

Townspeople

- Sarah Johnsrude

Glasscock’s Island, inspiration for Jackson’ Island in Tom Sawyer, near Hannibal, Missouri.

Drawing of Tom Sawyer by True W. Williams.

Norman Rockwell’s 1936 painting of Tom, Huck, and Joe on the Island.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORMARK TWAINMark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30th, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, a town so small that Twain joked his birth increased the population by 1%. He lived there for four years before his family moved to another tiny Missouri town, Hannibal, which would become the inspiration for the setting of many of his future writings. Twain was the troublemaker among his six siblings and a stark contrast to Henry, his near-perfect brother and model for the character Sid in Tom Sawyer. While he had a prank-filled childhood, Twain had to take on adult responsibility when, at the age of twelve, his father, John Marshall Clemens, died leaving his family in poverty. Twain worked as a printing apprentice at the Hannibal Courier, though he was only paid in clothes and board. In 1853, Twain moved to St. Louis to work for The Evening News before he began to travel. For several years he worked newspaper jobs in various cities around the country.

In 1858, Twain’s fascination with steamboats led him to become a steersman in New Orleans. By age 24, Twain became a licensed river pilot. This career occupied him until the start of the Civil War in 1861, when Twain enlisted with the Confederacy. He served for a brief period of time before he abandoned the military and headed west in hopes of mining silver and gold. Shortly thereafter, Twain moved to Virginia because The Gold Rush had ended. He worked as a reporter and humorist for Virginia City Territorial Enterprise under the pseudonym Mark Twain and published his first book, Innocents Abroad, in 1869.

In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon, who birthed two children, Langdon Clemens and Susan Olivia. Twain published Roughing It in 1872, the same year his eldest, Langdon, died of Diphtheria. Twain became depressed from his son’s death and his own struggling career. By 1873, Twain had collaborated with Charles Dudley Warner on the novel The Gilded Age, which then put Twain on the map as a literary author instead of a journalist.

Jon Jory

ABOUT THE ADAPTORLAURA EASON

Twain continued to gain popularity with his works The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). By the time of his death in 1910, Twain was regarded as one of the greatest authors in America. Since his death, his autobiography and many personal letters have been published.

Laura Eason is a playwright whose works have been featured at many theatres throughout the country including Lookingglass Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. She adapted The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in addition to Huck Finn, A Tale of Two Cities and Ethan Frome, and has written many original scripts, such as Mr. Smitten, When the Messenger is Hot and In the Eye of the Beholder. Eason

grew up in Chicago and attended Northwestern University before

she became a member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she wrote, acted, directed and served as Artistic Director for six years. Eason has received the Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work and Adaptation. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

- Sarah Johnsrude

Portrait of Mark Twain

- Sarah Johnsrude

Laura Eason

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BRINGING LIFE TO A CLASSIC: ADAPTING TOM SAWYER FOR THE STAGE

- Sarah Johnsrude

Portrait of Mark Twain

Drawings of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, and Aunt Polly by True W. Williams in the first edition of Tom Sawyer.

- Sarah Johnsrude

- Amy Wegener

In our cultural imagination, no work of American literature has been so influential in defining the wonder of childhood as Mark Twain’s “hymn” to that experience, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. As visitors to Twain’s fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri—based on the river town where the master humorist grew up in the 1840s—we’re transported back to a time in life when everything was new, when becoming a pirate and ditching school for the swimming hole were serious enterprises, and the new girl or boy down the street held endless fascination. Twain wrote that he hoped to both

amuse the young and to “pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and how they felt and thought and talked,” spinning a captivating series of summer adventures that are both comical and (at times) dangerously daring. Channeling these adventures for the stage, playwright Laura Eason has penned a joyful adaptation of the novel, teaming up with director Jeremy B. Cohen to harness all the theatrical potential of the story’s playful spirit. Eason, renowned for her nimble adaptations of classic texts and an ensemble member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, was invited by Cohen, now Producing Artistic Director at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, to write the piece for his former artistic home, Hartford Stage. When their visually inventive version of Tom Sawyer’s boyhood escapades—complete with original music—had its debut in Hartford in 2010, the production’s “exhilarating artistry” was praised by the New York Times, which called it “sassy, ingeniously staged, and deeply affecting.” “This Tom Sawyer,” the review continued, “is going after the heart of childhood, the part most of us—except the poets and philosophers, maybe—lost touch with long ago.” That heart of childhood, for Eason and Cohen, lives in the power of play itself—in all of the pranks and wild imagination that are the very air that Tom and his best friend Huckleberry Finn breathe. “Tom Sawyer is a roller coaster ride of episodic events built on the notion that there’s nothing greater than playfulness,” explains Cohen. While Tom tries to win the affection of pretty Becky Thatcher, he gets into all manner of boyhood mischief: subverting Aunt Polly’s chores, running away to the woods, and hunting for buried treasure with Huck. But the boys stumble into danger when they witness a crime in the graveyard one night, and the play evokes not only the elation of being a kid, but also the sheer terror of eye-opening first experiences. True to the novel, though, fear is

always vanquished by joy. “That idea was really important to us, that everything in the show was about the spirit of adventure, of play, of childhood,” explains Eason. “There are definitely moments in Tom Sawyer when the adult world of darkness and danger slash through the story. But ultimately, play wins. Childhood wins.” This idea of a world defined by play is embedded in Eason’s vivid descriptions of the movement sequences in her script, and fully embodied in the production’s thrilling stagecraft. The decision to have the whole ensemble hold Twain’s narrative voice means that from the start, the audience is welcomed into the event, addressed by the company of actors. And then with wild abandon, Tom swings and splashes (literally) into a day of playing hooky from school—and the fun begins. In collaboration with a dream team of designers as well as choreographer Tommy Rapley, Eason and Cohen have created a three-dimensional equivalent to the very feeling of youthful imagination. Language and physical texture tell the story in tandem. “It’s so much about boys out in the world, jumping and swinging and running around,” says Eason. “There’s such a rich physical life in the book, and there was no way to tell the story I wanted to tell without a very strong physical component.” As Cohen points out, this is also key to the experience of childhood: “Kids understand things through their bodies, not by sitting down over an Americano and working it out,” he laughs. “Physical expression is the best way to translate across time periods and generations; it brings the story closer to the audience.” And this adaptation—both faithful to the book’s spirit and a satisfying journey all its own—has delighted newcomers to the tale and Twain fans alike, charming anyone who’s ever been a kid. Being able to revisit that feeling of boundless awe, that brief time when everything was new, is as close to a form of magic as the theatre can conjure. “That’s how we wanted to connect with a wide range of audiences: to appeal to the child in all of us, by remembering those first moments of true love, true fear, true adventure,” says Cohen. That sensation of discovery lives on as a universal experience, even in a 21st century world so different from the idyllic town of Mark Twain’s memory. “Childhood now is much more scheduled, mediated and play-dated, and running out alone into the world unsupervised, having all kinds of adventures, is not something that a lot of kids do anymore,” Eason observes. “But I think we all still have that impulse to run into an open field and see what we can find, and use our imaginations.”

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INTERVIEW WITH MOVEMENT DIRECTORTOMMY RAPLEY

Norman Rockwell’s painting of Tom receiving a whipping from his school master.

Tommy Rapley is the Movement Director for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He spoke to Education Intern Sarah Johnsrude about his role in the production and the importance of physical storytelling. Sarah Johnsrude: Could you describe your role in the rehearsal process?

Tommy Rapley: I would say my role in the rehearsal process is split in to three main categories:1. As a choreographer of steps.  For Tom Sawyer this included moments like the opening sequence, the graveyard fight and the beginning of Act II.  I arranged the bodies in space, choreographed their movement and, in collaboration with the composers, put that movement to music.  This is what you would expect the choreog-rapher for a Broadway musical or concert dance piece to do, and is often where a choreographer’s job description ends.  What I enjoyed so much about working on Tom Sawyer was that my role extended well beyond the realm and language of dance to include all kinds of storytelling through movement—from small gestures and looks, to the way someone walks and stands, to large musical sequences that rely on physicality to tell the story in place of text. 2.  As a resource for the actors.  Some of the fun in Tom Sawyer comes from the fact that several actors play multiple roles.  Part of my job is to ensure that you, the audience, understand each character as a distinct individual, unique from another role the actor might play.  I’m available as a resource in the rehearsal room (much like a voice or dialect coach might be) to assist actors in cre-ating a physically specific and dynamic performance.   3.  As a movement dramaturg.   I collaborate with the director and the designers to ensure that the movement in the play is cohesive and coherent throughout.  This includes making sure that Huck doesn’t give Tom a peace sign—that would seem out of place for the world of the play.  It also includes helping the director and set designer craft seamless transitions and make use of the space in imaginative and engaging ways—rearranging ladders to look like we’re in a cave or climbing the set of stairs like it’s a rock because in our imaginations we’re by a lake.  Tom Sawyer is a very cinematic play; there are lots of short scenes and small adventures that add up to one large journey.  It was important to Jeremy, the director, that we move fluidly from place to place and use the transitions to set tone, energy or circumstances for the scene.  We try to squeeze the juice out of every moment the actors are on stage, and keep the ball rolling from beginning to end.

Johnsrude: What aspects of Tom Sawyer lend themselves well to movement instruction?

Rapley: There are lots of moments for physical storytelling in the play.  When Tom and Becky see each other for the first time, for example, we want to see and feel the butterflies in their stomachs, not hear them talk about it.  Something that our playwright, Laura

Eason, has done so beautifully is choose where ideas and action need to retain the voice and wit of Mark Twain, where we can rely on the actors to use dialogue to understand the story, and where the information can be expressed in physical sequences.  These include the opening dance (where we are introduced to many of the characters and relationships that unfold throughout the play), the “painting the fence” sequence, Tom following Becky home, Tom’s Nightmare at the beginning of Act II, and the journey through the caves. Johnsrude: How has choreography benefitted the telling of this story? Rapley: I think that movement engages the audience in a different way than text. It is another way we can excite the minds of our audience.  By including lots of different forms of storytelling—dance, set, lights, music, costumes, narration, dialogue—we are constantly asking the audience to engage with the story in new and interesting ways—often times asking them to use their imaginations heavily in the process.  This makes them lean forward into the story; the tale could literally not be told without them, so they become essential to the story itself.   I also find physical storytelling to be a more universal and visceral way to communicate.  Even if I don’t understand English and have never been to the Deep South, I understand what it might be like to get my ear tugged or get punched in the gut or receive a flower from someone I like. These kinds of physical gestures help to make the play accessible to a broad spectrum of socio-economic classes, religions, ethnicities and ages.  Movement sometimes communicates what words cannot.

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RIVER TOWN CULTURE

LOUISVILLE’S RIVER TOWN HISTORY

In a time before highways and maintained roads, rivers were the primary transportation for long distance travel. Towns located on rivers grew faster and became more profitable than those that were removed from water. Proximity to water could make or break a town, not only because water was (and is) a valuable resource, but also because rivers brought goods, trade and passengers as boats traveled up

and downstream. River towns were a vital part of America’s early economy and culture. Mark Twain created the fictional river town of St. Petersburg, Missouri as the setting for his most beloved works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. River towns played a large part in Mark Twain’s life, as they did the life of most Americans in the 1800s. Tom Sawyer is not only an ode to childhood, but also to pre-Civil War America and the river towns of Twain’s youth. Mark Twain grew up in the river town of Hannibal, Missouri. Twain and his family moved there for the economic opportunities the town would provide. Hannibal is located on the banks of the Mississippi River, the largest river in North America, which flows from Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico. In the 1840s, Hannibal was the third largest town in Missouri thanks to the Mississippi, which brought trade and passengers to the town. In

the 1840s, Hannibal would have been host to traveling lecturers, circuses and showboats because of its position on the Mississippi, providing entertainment, culture and exotic commodities to the town.

Mark Twain used his experience in Hannibal as the basis for the fictional town of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Renamed St. Petersburg, perhaps to evoke St. Peter himself, the Christian gatekeeper of heaven, St. Petersburg has many recognizable features of Hannibal, like McDowell’s cave and Glasscock’s Island, renamed McDougal’s cave and Jackson’s Island respectively in Tom Sawyer. However, Hannibal and St. Petersburg are very different. St. Petersburg, as drawn by Twain, was a sleepy, rural town. The funeral and trial that take place in Tom Sawyer are the most exciting activities the town sees that summer. So, St. Petersburg is based on Hannibal’s geography, but Twain took plenty of artistic license when creating the town. St. Petersburg, with its small town feel, is the perfect backdrop for a summer of adventure readers cannot help but remember. Even today, most of America’s most influential and populous cities are located on rivers, lakes, bays and oceans. Despite the advances made in modern transportation and an extensive highway system stretching from coast to coast, rivers and the cities built along them remain important to America’s commerce and culture.

Tom Sawyer is not only an ode to childhood, but also to pre-Civil War America and the river towns of Twain’s youth.

Louisville, Kentucky, like Hannibal, is also a river town on the banks of one of the Mississippi’s tributaries, the Ohio River. Founded by George Rogers Clark in 1778, the town was a natural stopping point on the Ohio River due to the Falls of the Ohio, a two-and-a-half-mile series of rapids dropping twenty six feet, which made the river impossible to navigate. Ships had to unload their cargo and reload below the Falls.

Louisville grew as a center of trade along the Ohio, and by 1850, Louisville was the tenth largest city in America. For the first time in 1815, steamboats were powerful enough to cruise upstream from the Mississippi to the Ohio, which led to a population boom in Louisville. The city had a newspaper, theatre, library and hospitals—very cosmopolitan features for a city at the time.

Sketch of the Mississippi River by artist Jacob A. Dallas

- Betsy Anne HugginsDrawing of the Falls of the Ohio in the 1826 Atlas of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

- Betsy Anne Huggins

TOM SAWYER:JUST FOR ADULTS?

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published in 1876, was Mark Twain’s first novel, but it was hardly America’s first taste of Twain. The short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” made Twain an overnight sensation in 1865 and his fame grew as he traveled America and Europe on lecture circuits. The former newspaper writer also co-authored three books, all published with great success. But it was Tom Sawyer that enchanted the nation and brought him fans worldwide. Twain called the book, a fictionalization of his childhood in rural Missouri, “a hymn” to his boyhood. The book remains an American classic and even those who haven’t read it are familiar with the iconic characters and images. But before the fame and success of Tom Sawyer, Twain was concerned about the audience of the now beloved classic. Today, the book has been adapted for children and the original continues to be read in high school, but Twain originally intended the book for adults. He wrote to a friend in 1875 that “It is not a boy’s book, at all. It will only be read by adults. It is written only for adults.” Twain worried about losing his main audience if Tom Sawyer was marketed for children. He also never intended for Tom Sawyer to be a straightforward story of a boy’s adventure. He intended for the adult audience not only to be reminded of their own childhood but also to recognize his sharp social critique of

small town life and the narrow-mindedness of its inhabitants. It was Twain’s wife who convinced him to market the book toward children, and to his great advantage. The children’s book market of the time was full of instructional or moralistic work with good little boys who succeed and bad boys who are taught a lesson. Tom Sawyer was a true departure; as Twain wrote, “He was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very well though—and loathed him.” Tom Sawyer is the hero while retaining his childlike impishness.

Years after the publishing of Tom Sawyer, Twain conceded that the book was for children. As it turns out, his entrepreneurial spirit won through. He wrote to a friend in 1892, “I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience.”

“It is not a boy’s book, at all. It will only be read by adults. It is written only for adults.”

- Betsy Anne Huggins

Portrait of Mark Twain

Did you know?

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the author adopted the pen name “Mark

Twain” around 1863. The term, derived from Twain’s time spent as a river

boat captain on the Mississippi, is an antiquated term for navigable waters.

“Mark twain” meant that the water was two, or twain, fathoms deep.

MARK TWAIN:LITERARY OUTLAW

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Schools have continued to remove the book from reading lists because parents, students and teachers alike have been uncomfortable with the language.

Though Twain’s books were written over one hundred years ago, they continue to inspire debate. His most beloved books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, take place before the Civil War in an era of racial injustice and slavery. Twain was uniquely situated to comment on social issues of the day. After growing up in the South, Twain traveled the Mississippi as a steamboat Captain, journeyed to the West as a reporter and ventured to Europe as a tourist. By the time he wrote Tom Sawyer, Twain had seen the world and had developed a pessimistic attitude towards man’s ability to treat others with compassion. Twain was a famous abolitionist and a crusader for women’s rights, yet today his books inspire controversy because of how he approached race. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the evil, malevolent adversary Injun Joe is the only Native American character in the book. And The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most widely banned books in America. How can America’s greatest novelist inspire so much controversy? The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has many antagonists, from the domineering schoolteacher to the pious priest, but only one villain: Injun Joe. Injun Joe is the perfect villain, a murderous thief driven by greed and revenge. The source of his rage, the story claims, is his “Injun blood” which causes him to be ruthless and aggressive. Twain draws his character with no remorse. Injun Joe has been treated poorly because of his race, but Twain advises the reader to take no pity on the man. He is pure evil. Native Americans were often characterized as revenge-seeking criminals in books and newspapers during the 19th century. Yet Twain never meant for his characters to be archetypes. Becky Thatcher certainly isn’t like all the other girls at school, and no other boy matches the mischievous ingenuity of Tom. Twain’s characters are a clue as to how the character of Injun Joe can be understood.

Historians have been able to find real-life counterparts from Twain’s youth for most major characters, including the boys, Becky Thatcher, the schoolteacher and doctor. There is no information that Twain knew someone like Injun Joe. It’s likely, then, that Injun Joe was not written from real life, but rather, was an invention of Twain’s imagination. Injun Joe is a perfect villain, but perhaps too perfect, as if a character from one of Tom’s (or Twain’s) books stepped out of its pages and into St. Petersburg. He is the ideal vehicle for the story, a children’s book antagonist come to life. Injun Joe was never meant to speak for all Native Americans. While Tom Sawyer shies away from explicit discussion of race, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has overt themes of anti-racism and abolitionism. However, it’s the language, not the content, that has placed Huck Finn on many banned books lists. The “N” word is used 219 times in the book as a synonym for slave or African American. Twain did not mean the word to be offensive, but today the word can still be extremely hurtful. As the audience has become further removed from the time of the book, the word has become more weighted with the struggles of black Americans. Schools have continued to remove the book from reading lists because parents, students and teachers alike have been uncomfortable with the language. Recently, news that an edited version of both Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer would be available for schools made headlines for its controversial elimination of both the “N” word and “injun,” to be replaced with “slave” and “Indian,” respectively. The public outcry condemning the censorship of Twain’s work proved that although his work is controversial, Twain’s novel, inspired by historically accurate biases and beliefs, is worth preserving in its entirety.

- Betsy Anne Huggins

- Betsy Anne Huggins

Should Mark Twain be censored?

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NOTIONS OF CHILDHOOD:THEN AND NOWIn 1840s Missouri, children were first and foremost expected to contribute to the family. They had the opportunity to private school; that is, if their families could afford it. There were no children’s comforts—no stores devoted to kid-sized furniture or toys to boost children’s development. Instead children grew up in an adult environment where they were required to run errands, complete chores around the house and help out on the family farm.

That is not to say that children in this era lacked fun; they just had to get innovative and invent games themselves. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer exemplifies the many ways kids were able to create entertainment. Children played pranks on one another—Tom, for instance, enjoys tricking his neighbors into doing his chores while profiting from their little treasures during the whitewashing scene. He also recruits his friend Huck to go on several adventures with him—together they play make-believe games like “Graveyard Murder” and “Pirates.” Though the children of this age had a number of familial responsibilities, they were given a degree of freedom most kids in 2011 would envy. For example, Becky, a girl of Tom’s pre-teen age, hosts a picnic in a cave without parental supervision. The liberty for youngsters to meander about town as they please facilitates a desire for adventure while simultaneously posing a dangerous threat to kid’s safety. The notion of childhood has changed drastically since Twain’s era. Though many states passed bills regulating child labor throughout the 19th century, a national law prohibiting child labor did not exist in America until 1938 with the implementation of The Fair Labor Standards Act. These standards ensured children have the opportunity to pursue an education and attend school before they could enter the workforce at age 16. Mark Twain did not grow up under these standards—at age 12, he was forced to leave school to work and support himself after his father, the primary breadwinner of the home, died.

Once child labor laws were established, “childhood” itself was defined as a stage of life that demanded particular care in order for development to occur. Small, specialty furniture—such as booster seats and miniature chairs—were produced in order to aid kids’ growth process. Companies took note of this new market niche and began making children’s toys and advertising them with new, advanced techniques that made toy companies quite profitable. Walt Disney is credited with bringing the “kid-consumer” to America with the implementation of Disney World and Disney Land, which streamlined the ideal image of childhood in America in terms of consumption.

Now, in 2011, kids have very different day-to-day experiences from Mark Twain. They have fewer adult responsibilities, though many still have simple age-appropriate chores they must carry

out at home. Children are not allowed to work for pay and must be full-time students. Kids are engaged in extracurricular sports and clubs that foster education and skill outside of the classroom. In their spare time, children are primarily consumers of toys, television, and video games. Though children may continue to play creative and innovative games, such as “House” or “Pirates,” there are limitations as to where kids are allowed to play and under whose supervision. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain portrays Tom in an innocent, playful light—a boy free to explore the world of his own imagination—which colors even the darker, more mature aspects of the story. Though the notion of childhood has drastically changed since Mark Twain wrote Tom Sawyer, his characterization of childhood through Tom’s spirited pursuit of adventure is timeless.

- Sarah Johnsrude

Childhood is very different today than it was when Mark Twain grew up.

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MARK TWAIN’S CHILDHOOD

Tom Sawyer shares many qualities with his author, Mark Twain. As a boy, Twain was known to be playfully mischievous in a way that frequently got him into trouble. Twain recounts how his mother would automatically blame him for problems that arose in the house—even when Twain was, on occasion, innocent. But, most of the time, his mother had the correct culprit. Twain got much pleasure from setting up practical jokes, especially at the expense of his goody-two-shoes brother, Henry.

In his autobiography, Twain recalls an afternoon when Henry was sent on an errand that required him to walk up the stairway on the exterior of their house. In advance, Twain locked the door at the top of the stairs and returned to his backyard, where he collected fistfuls of dirt and mud. When his brother ascended

the staircase, he found himself trapped at the top with Twain at the foot of the staircase. Twain ambushed his brother with mud until his mother heard the racket and chased Twain around the house. Twain hopped the fence and spent a couple hours in safety. However, when he returned, his brother ambushed him in return. He suffered a particularly painful bruise on the side of his head, where his brother hit him with a rock.

But this payback did nothing to curb Twain’s tendency towards mischief. Twain admitted to more fooleries, like feeding strong painkillers to his cat (a story mirrored in the novel) and dropping a watermelon rind on Henry’s head.

Did you know?

Mark Twain was born in 1835 during the passing of Halley’s Comet, which is visible

from Earth every 75 to 76 years. The author believed that he would die during the next passing of the comet, and indeed, in 1910

Twain passed the day after the Comet’s return. In his biography, Twain wrote, “It

will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The

Almighty has said, no doubt: “Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in

together, they must go out together.”

- Sarah Johnsrude

- Sarah Johnsrude

William Anderson wrote the book River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain to chronicle some of Twain’s own childhood adventures.

Mark Twain as a young boy.

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PERSONALTom and Huck go on several adventures that start out innocently before taking a dangerous, life-threatening turn. Think back on your own imaginative childhood adventures. Write a narrative about an experience you had growing up when your curiosity got the better of you and put you at risk. Did the experience make you more cautious? How did it change you?

WRITING PORTFOLIO

DISCUSSION QUESTIONSPRE-SHOW QUESTIONS1. What was your childhood like? What did you do for fun? What activities were you allowed to do? What activities were off limits? How do you think this might differ from someone who grew up in smalltown 19th century America?

2. In your opinion, where does childhood end and adulthood begin? What are key characteristics that define childhood vs. adult-hood?

POST-SHOW QUESTIONS1. Even though Tom is mischievous, he does, at times, display maturity. In what ways does Tom show courage? What makes him a hero?

2. Twain intentionally concludes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer while Tom is still young. What do you think Twain is trying to express by keeping Tom from growing up in this story? Is it an effective resolution?

LITERARYWhat would Tom Sawyer be like if he lived in 2011? How would he spend his time? Write a short story about what kind of trouble Tom would find himself in if he lived today.

Mark Twain sits at his messy desk.

TRANSACTIVEImagine you are a member of the St. Petersburg community and you have been following the Muff Potter murder trial. Write an editorial to the local paper asserting your opinion about the results of the trial.

AT YOUR DESK ACTIVITIES

1. Create a board game based on Tom Sawyer! Pick several locations from the story, like the cave or the graveyard, and create stepping stones to form a path from start to finish. Think about

different obstacles that Tom and his friends face in the book. Write some of these obstacles in the form of game directions on individual squares. For example, “Whitewash the fence. Skip a Turn,” or “Homesick on the island. Go back two spaces.” Create game pieces modeled after the characters. Now roll the dice! 2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was inspired by Mark Twain’s childhood. Think about your own childhood. Who were your friends? What kind of trouble did you get into? Write a short story based on your own childhood experience using your friends as models for your characters. Like Twain, feel free to embellish the plot! Share your stories out loud with your class.

The following exercises combine creative drama, theatre concepts and core content to connect the theatre experience with drama activities in your classroom.

By exploring drama as a mode of learning, students strengthen skills for creative problem solving, imagination and critical thinking.

BRIDGEWORKBUILDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN STAGE AND CLASSROOM

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Shhhh!

Board Game

ON YOUR FEET ACTIVITIES

1. One memorable scene in the play is the whitewashing scene. Tom convinces his friends that whitewashing the fence, a grueling task, is actually the best time he’s ever had. Tom even tricks his friends into giving up their treasures for a turn at whitewashing! Have the class form two lines, Line 1 and Line 2. One person from each line takes the stage at a time. Improvise a scene where the actor from Line 1 has to convince the actor from Line 2 to complete a difficult or boring task. Think of different tactics to convince your scene partner to work for you. Try out a few different methods to persuade your partner. After your scene, switch lines. What tactics succeeded or didn’t succeed? Why? And remember what Twain wrote, “in order to make a man or boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.”

2. Tom and Huck believe some crazy remedies for getting rid of warts, from dousing their hands in spunk-water to swinging a dead cat over their head in a graveyard at midnight. Often, old-wives’ tales like these have some kernel of truth to them, but as the advice gets

passed from person to person, the words change until the saying is nothing like the original! Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor and play a version of “Telephone.” Have the “caller” whisper a phrase in the ear of the person next to them. That person in turn whispers whatever they heard into the next person’s ear, and so on and so forth around the circle until the last person hears the secret and says it out loud. Only the last person is allowed to say the secret out loud, and each person only has one chance to whisper the phrase in the next person’s ear. No cheating! And keep the phrases school appropriate. How did the phrase change? Can your class find a way to pass the secret around the circle without it changing?

IF YOU LIKED THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER...

MORE BOOKS BY MARK TWAINAutobiography of Mark Twain, released in 2010Tom Sawyer, Detective, 1896 Tom Sawyer Abroad, 1894 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885

FILMSummer of the Monkeys (1998) Tom and Huck (1996) The Goonies (1985) Oliver Twist (1982) Benji (1974)

WORKS CITED“Biography of Mark Twain,” List of Works, Study Guides & Essay

Editing. GradeSaver. Web. 16 July 2011. <http://www.gradesaver.com/author/mark-twain/>.

Bosman, Julie. “Publisher Tinkers with Twain.” The New York Times. 4 Jan. 2011. 14. Jul. 2011 <http://www.nytimes. com/2011/01/05/books/05huck.html?_r=1. >

de Koster, Katie, Ed. Readings on Mark Twain “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999.

Falls of the Ohio State Park. 16 Jul. 2011 <http://www.fallsoftheo hio.org/.>

“History of Child Labor.” Scholastic.com. Teaching Resources, Children’s Book Recommendations, and Student Activities Scholastic.com. Web. 18 July 2011. <http:// www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=5428>.

History of Louisville Timeline. 16 Jul. 2011 <http://www.louisville.cc/timeline-large/07- 1831.html

Hutchinson, Stuart, Ed. Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

“Laura Eason.” Lookingglass Theatre Company. Web. 7 July 2011. <http://www.

lookingglasstheatre.org/content/laura-eason>.

“Laura Eason.” Web. 7 July 2011. <http://web.me.com/lauraeason/LE_Web/Home.html>.

“Mark Twain Biography - A Complete Biography on Mark Twain.” Mark Twain - Complete Works of Mark Twain, Biography, Quotes. Web. 18 July 2011. <http://www.mtwain.com/l_biography.html>.

McDermott, John Francis. Before Mark Twain: A Sampler of Old, Old Times on the Mississippi. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968.

Neider, Charles, ed. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. New York: Harper & Row, 1959. Print.

Norton, Charles A.. Writing Tom Sawyer. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 1983.

Robbins, Richard H. “Capitalism and the Making of the Consumer.” Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, 2002. 21-31.

Sloan, David E. E. Student Companion to Mark Twain. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Edition Limited, 1992.

Watkins, T. H. Mark Twain’s Mississippi: A Pictoral History of America’s Greatest River. Palo Alto, California: American West Publishing Company, 1974.

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OTHER BOOKSA Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne Around the World in Eighty Day by Jules Verne Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

GLOSSARY

WHITEWASHApply a coat of white paint. Also refers to the paint itself.

HORSEWHIP Beat severely.

SKIFFA small fishing boat with a pointed bow (front) and flat stern (back). They are usually powered by oars.

WHARF Structure in a harbor where ships can dock to unload or reload supplies and passengers

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SPUNK-WATERRain water that collects in hollowed-out tree stumps, thought by Huck to cure warts.

VAGRANTA person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging.

CHICKEN-HEARTEDDescription for someone who is cowardly or gutless.

FOOLERYFoolish behavior or speech

HOOKEYSlang term for skipping school or cutting class. Often referred to as “playing hooky.”

INJUNRacist term for someone of Native American origin.

MUMRemain silent, as in “keep mum.”

ONE HORSE TOWNA colloquial term for a small town.

RANSACKSearch thoroughly, pillage.

RECKONA slang term for “think” or “believe.”

actors theatre of louisville n 316 West Main Street n Louisville, KY 40202-4218Box office 502-584-1205 n Group Sales 502-585-1210 n Business Office 502-584-1265

ActorsTheatre.org

ATTENTION: YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS!Actors Theatre of Louisville is seeking submissions for our Ten-Minute Play Contest

Students grades 6-12 living in the Commonwealth of Kentucky or the (812) area code of Southern Indiana are invited to submit their very best ten-minute play to New Voices, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual ten-minute play contest for young playwrights!

Guidelines, tips, examples and submission details are outlined at ActorsTheatre.org. You may also email your questions to NewVoices@ActorsTheatre.org.

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports Actors Theatre of Louisville with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Norton Foundation

Deadline for submissions:October 31, 2011, Halloween NEW VOICES YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVALWinning plays will be fully produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville in April of 2012 and will be published in our New Voices Anthology!